My small town (<3000) had one in the 90s, we had a dance floor with music Friday and Saturday nights, a projector for movies and a concession stand, and a mini golf course downstairs. In my later teens I helped convert an unused part of the second story into a haunted house/maze for Halloween.
The building was originally a warehouse built back when the town had industry around the turn of the 20th century. It was brick built so still in great shape even today and it’s been abandoned again for 20 years now
The town has just continued to decline, nearly everyone is either desperately poor, broken by their jobs so they can’t do anything or they’ll lose disability, on hardcore drugs, or so old/senile they can’t contribute to the community.
Nearest decent job and grocery stores being 45+ minutes didn’t help things. A few generations and it’ll be completely gone. I, like most capable children of these type of towns, fled to the city as soon as I was capable in search of a better life. Otherwise I’d break my back in manual labor and develop opioid addiction, or have my job replaced by automation and develop opioid addiction. Tis the fate of America’s rural Midwest
Back in the late 1800s-early 1900s the town counted over 60,000, by the early 90s around 3k was being generous with city borders and census counts. I honestly think they just stopped updating the sign to stave off depression and save money
My small town (<3000) had one in the 90s, we had a dance floor with music Friday and Saturday nights, a projector for movies and a concession stand, and a mini golf course downstairs. In my later teens I helped convert an unused part of the second story into a haunted house/maze for Halloween.
The building was originally a warehouse built back when the town had industry around the turn of the 20th century. It was brick built so still in great shape even today and it’s been abandoned again for 20 years now
It sounded great and you guys put a lot of work into that, why has it been abandoned for 20 years?
The town has just continued to decline, nearly everyone is either desperately poor, broken by their jobs so they can’t do anything or they’ll lose disability, on hardcore drugs, or so old/senile they can’t contribute to the community.
Nearest decent job and grocery stores being 45+ minutes didn’t help things. A few generations and it’ll be completely gone. I, like most capable children of these type of towns, fled to the city as soon as I was capable in search of a better life. Otherwise I’d break my back in manual labor and develop opioid addiction, or have my job replaced by automation and develop opioid addiction. Tis the fate of America’s rural Midwest
Back in the late 1800s-early 1900s the town counted over 60,000, by the early 90s around 3k was being generous with city borders and census counts. I honestly think they just stopped updating the sign to stave off depression and save money